Rice extends contract for AD Joe Karlgaard until 2021

Rice Director of Athletics Joe Karlgaard came to South Main in the fall of 2013 with a vision of transforming the school’s athletic program into a contender across all sports.

Since that time he’s overseen 12 conference titles among nine different sports, helping him earn a three-year contract extension through 2021 on Friday.

“We have a lot more work to do,” Karlgaard said. “I feel like we built some of that foundation in the last four-plus years here, but I think there’s more to do and I’m happy to partner with (Rice President David Leebron) and the university to get our athletic department even further along.”

Rice football and basketball are central to Karlgaard’s vision for the school’s brand. The year he arrived, the football team won its first outright conference title since 1957. He made what was arguably his biggest hire this December, when he tapped former Stanford offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren as their new head coach.

“I think we’re very excited about coach Bloomgren and what he brings to the table and what we think we can do in football,” he said.

“Having a football program that can move us forward and having a basketball team that can move us forward is of the utmost importance to me so I feel like we’re really close to breaking through.”

For Karlgaard, breaking through means garnering greater respect across the college sports world.

“I think among the Group of Five programs it’s about being consistently talked about as one of the best,” he said. “We want to feel as though on any given Saturday—or day of competition—that we can go out and compete with any of them. That doesn’t mean we’re going to win all those games but I’d like to get us in a position where we can go toe-to-toe with anybody. We’ve got the academic prestige and when you put that together we’re looking to create one of the top experiences available to student athletes.”